Monday, February 11, 2013

NOTD & Tutorial

I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day, but if you are looking for a simple way to add a little touch of holiday appropriate nail art to your manicure for this Thursday, this post is for you. And I do mean SIMPLE. Nothing over the top. Just some simple little hearts. You don't need any special tools, and it's easy enough you will be able to do both hands with ease.

You will need at least two shades of nail polish - a base color and a color for your hearts. You can use more colors if you want of course, but this is the bare minimum. You will also need a dotting tool, but if you don't have one don't rush out to buy one. You can use a toothpick, the tip of a sharpened pencil, the flat end of a head pin (jewelry making supplies), a bobby pin - you get the idea. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm just going to say "dotting tool" but it will apply to whatever you're using.

Begin with your base color and let it dry completely.

Now, use your dotting tool to make a dot of polish with your other color. The size of your finished heart depends on the size dots you make.

Now make a second dot beside the first one. Place it close, but not touching the first dot.

Next, go back to your first dot and use your dotting tool to draw it downward and slightly toward the middle between the two dots. Don't worry if it's not perfectly straight, it can be fixed later.

Repeat on the other side.

If necessary, go back with your dotting tool to neaten up and even out the sides. As you can see above, mine was not quite pretty after drawing down the two dots, so a little touching up was needed. It happens sometimes - but it's not a big deal.

Let the polish dry thoroughly before applying top coat so you don't smear the hearts.

And that's all there is to it!

You may want to add a third dot below the first two, right in the middle, to make a a little triangle of dots and help you with the placement but it's not necessary.

Colors used for the above were Julep "Helen" (base color) and Petites "Pretty In Pink" (heart)